He appeared on the show this weekend and was shown to be a defiant chimpanzee leader.
However, seven months after the cameras stopped rolling, David was found beaten to death.
Jill Pruetz, director of the Fongoli Savanna Chimpanzee Project confirmed the news to The Daily Telegraph.
In reference to David's rivals on the show, Jumkin and Luther, Jill said: "He died from wounds inflicted from what I'm sure are these young males.
"There aren't other animals that would have inflicted wounds like that – especially when you have multiple individuals attacking a single individual.
"He was very aggressive that's why he held onto his dominant status for so long.
"He was pretty clever but our best interpretation of what happened is that these adult males jumped him."
"Jumkin who was a beta male is now the alpha. There's a huge absence. It's like more than one chimp is gone.
"The dynamic is really different. I imagine Jumkin will be alpha for a while. However, you can see Luther [another beta] already challenging him a bit."
David was the longest-reigning alpha in the group's history.
Each episode of Attenborough’s new show – which BBC crews spent two years getting footage for – explores the lives of different tribes in the animal kingdom.
The troop of chimpanzees were filmed in the jungles of Senegal and Guinea, West Africa.
Dynasties also looks at Emperor penguins in Antarctica, lions on the plains of the Maasai Mara reserve in Kenya and tigers in India’s Bandhavgarh National Park.
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